Best apps...

For saving money effortlessly

■ Acorns rounds up to the next dollar the cost of every non-cash purchase you make, saving the extra pennies in an account that can easily be invested in stocks and bonds. You can also set up recurring deposits to, say, set aside $20 a week.

■ Stash also makes it easy to automatically save in tiny increments, but has no rounding function. It offers investment tutorials, packages investment options, and also predicts long-term balances based on your habits.

■ Qapital isn’t the easiest app to use, but it does all the things Acorns does and more. You can, for example, create a savings goal and pull friends or family members into saving toward it, whether for a getaway trip or a child’s tuition.

■ Digit monitors your bank balances and, following the guidelines you set, quietly transfers a small sum into savings each day based on how much spending you have available. Source:Gizmodo.com ■